National Archives - Split decision - the dole or the boat

Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave told a meeting about the economy that Ireland’s future as a society depended on success in bringing down inflation, writes Caroline O’Doherty.

IRISH workers were facing a stark choice between the "dole queue or the emigrant ship", Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave warned at a private meeting to discuss the country's economic crisis.

The meeting convened between all the senior Government ministers and organisations representing industry, agriculture, employers and trade unions on May 2, 1975 was against a background of the oil crisis, a world recession and the loss of protectionist import tariffs following membership of the EEC.